Beech Tree Identification
The American beech tree is one of the most easily identified trees in the forests where it grows. Certain features that the tree possesses make this quick recognition possible. The American beech tree can live for as long as 400 years in some instances. Of the ten different types of beech trees that belong to the genus Fagus, only the American beech, Fagus grandifolia, is native to North America. The rest grow across various portions of Europe.
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Geography
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The geographical distribution of the American beech helps in identifying it, since an individual should know if the tree grows in her part of the nation before looking for one. The beech is a common woodland tree in the eastern third of the United States, from southern Georgia northwards to the tip of New England. Its range extends as far west as the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes. The beech prefers moist soils and often grows near rivers, brooks and stream and in bottomlands and ravines.
Size
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The beech often reaches as high as 100 feet, but the average specimen is 80 feet tall. The tree grows straight and tall in forests in stands of many specimens, but when growing by itself in a sun-drenched area of the woods the trunk is short and the tree branches out quickly. The trunk typically is two to three feet in diameter. The leaves, which shed every autumn, are two to six inches in length and about two inches wide.
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Leaves
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The leaves have an elliptical shape with edges that are serrated. The stems are short and the tops and bottoms are smooth, with the tops having a dullish green hue and the bottoms being a lighter green color. In the fall, the leaves will change to either brown or yellow. In many cases, the leaves will remain on the tree during the winter before eventually falling to the ground. This is one of the things that make the beech so easily identifiable, as is the fact that the leaves take much longer than most to decompose, meaning they will accumulate in deep layers beneath the tree.
Bark
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The bark found on the American beech is one of its most prominent characteristics and sometimes a detriment. The bluish-gray bark is smooth and remains so even as the tree ages, unlike the vast majority of hardwood trees which may have smooth bark when young that becomes ridged or scaly as the tree matures. Beech trees are frequently the target of people seeking to carve their name in this smooth bark. However, this act takes away from the natural splendor of the tree and also potentially allows destructive fungi and insects into the wood.
Beech nuts
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The male flowers of the beech are yellow and bunched up like a ball. The female flowers, which also develop in the early part of spring, have red borders and show up on the end of new twigs. The pollinated flowers turn into edible nuts. These triangular shaped beech nuts grow in spiny husks in groups of twos and threes. The nuts drop to the ground where many mammals make a meal of them. The nuts are more abundant in cycles, with their numbers increasing every two to three years.
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